a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer comprising a housing, a door or cover for closing the housing, this door or cover in closed condition being located opposite a wall of the housing, and a switch for switching the computer on and off.
b. Related Art
Such computers are currently employed in businesses on a very large scale, the computer being usable both in a stand-alone situation as a personal computer and in the form of a "server" or terminal in a network. It is known that in each of the above applications, computers are frequently operated by unauthorized persons to illegally get possession of data stored in that computer or to be able to manipulate the data, or to introduce a computer virus into the computer or into the network. Further certain setups to be executed in the interior of the computer are changed and even that certain parts, such as plug-in circuit boards, disk drives, etc., are stolen from computers.
It is known to prevent unauthorized access to computerstored data by the use of access codes (passwords), but in many cases such protection is not optimal because the password is easy to trace or guess, for instance by a malicious third party. Also, a password does not provide protection against physical intervention in the interior of the computer.
The object of the invention is to provide a device for protecting a computer, which device can be used in addition to any existing electronic protections and which provides additional protection against unauthorized use of the computer and also provides protection against unauthorized opening of the computer housing.